ASSESSMENT OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION AMONG NURSING STUDENTS OVER A YEAR

Abstract

Introduction: Anxiety and depression observed in young people are associated with poor quality of life during the university period, not only with regard to poor eating and life habits, but also the inability to deal with problems associated with college and their future profession. Each stage of life, with its due concerns and questions, interferes with the level of overload and the demand among university students. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the levels of anxiety and depression among nursing students at a public university in the interior of Paraná, Brazil, at three different times, during one year. Method: This is a study with a quantitative, descriptive, exploratory approach, with a longitudinal cut. Data collection took place at three different times throughout the year (March, July and November) of 2019, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), validated for Brazil for the assessment of anxiety and depression, as well as an instrument for the sociodemographic and academic characterization of the subjects,  constructed and validated (face, content and semantics) for this study by specialists in the field of education and mental health. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed for the variables of interest, as well as the calculation of Cronbach's alpha to assess the internal consistency of the items on the HADS scale. Student's t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and one-way ANOVA with repeated measures were used to compare measures of anxiety and depression, as well as sociodemographic and academic variables among the students, throughout the three evaluations. Results: Among the 77 participating academics, 92.2% were women with an average age of 21 years; 15.4% married; 74.6% declared themselves Catholic; 65.8% declare themselves as good students. Age and dependence on some subject were considered statistically significant when compared between the years of the course. Mean anxiety in the three measures, respectively, for general nursing: 10.0; 9,9; and 9.5, which were not considered statistically significant. And for depression: 7.1; 7,4; 7.1 being statistically significant for the third evaluation. There was no statistically significant variation between the assessment of anxiety and depression levels in the three measures. Conclusion: The levels of anxiety and depression assessed by the HADS in the General Nursing group were not so quantitatively expressive, and are still higher than other studies involving nursing and/or health students. Data from the study indicated that there was no difference in the levels of anxiety and depression at different times throughout the year. Not having reached the population of students of the course in question, as a whole, in the evaluations carried out, was one of the limitations of the study. New studies are being carried out to try to explain the variations in the levels of anxiety and depression of the students of the Nursing course in question, with methodological approaches that allow giving voice to the subject studied.